Doug Henwood wrote: > > On Nov 29, 2006, at 12:54 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > > In the last 50 years how many > > price-changes of a few dollars a barrel have there been? > > The average of the absolute value of the yearly change in the yearly > average price of oil is 22% since 1861; 27% since 1970. In other > words, the price of oil is extremely volatile.
O.K. And the implication I would draw from this is that when a point wanders all over the place all the time _nothing_ whatever can be inferred from one particular variation, or even half a dozen. I'm not sure what even in principle _might_ a variation that could be assigned any meaning. Analogy: If a poet regularly uses a particular image (say of corrupt sexuality) in innumerable different contexts for innumerable different purposes, then one cannot base a construal of a particular line on the premise that "corrupt sexuality" = X. Carrol > > Doug
